Nellis, UFO Buffs, War Games And Deadly Crashes

Source: The Las Vegas Sun [NV]
Date: Sept 5 1998
Tim Dahlberg [AP]

LAS VEGAS - The F-117 stealth fighter flew secret nighttime 
tests there. So did the U-2 and other spy planes. UFO buffs 
believe the government studies aliens in a top-security area on 
its northern fringe.

Military mysteries aside, it's no secret Nellis Air Force Base 
range can be a deadly place.

The crash of two helicopters about 25 miles south of the top 
secret Area 51 section of the range in the early morning 
darkness Friday was the latest deadly mishap in an area where 
pilots and crew practice dangerous war games nearly every day 
high above desert floor.

Though Area 51 and its secret programs are steeped in mystery, 
the war games played out are no secret to the small towns 
bordering the range, which are routinely buzzed by pilots 
engaging in simulated dogfights in the restricted airspace.

The range, 5,200 square miles of desert and dry mountains, is 
the home of Red Flag exercises, which pit Air Force pilots and 
those from other countries against pilots trained in re-creating 
tactics of former Soviet bloc fighters.

Air Force officials say the unit the helicopters were assigned 
to flew in Red Flag exercises as recently as Thursday, but that 
the two downed helicopters were not involved in Red Flag at the 
time of the crash.

Fatal crashes involving various Air Force planes date back four 
decades, but the grimmest moment may have come Jan. 18, 1982, 
when four pilots of the Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration 
team slammed their T-38 jets into the ground while practicing on 
an auxiliary field north of Las Vegas.

Just a few months earlier, a C-130 crashed while practicing 
nighttime landings at the field, killing seven people.

Area 51, on the northern edge of the range, is shrouded in 
mystery. It is here the government has tested some of America's 
most exotic aircraft, including the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird 
high-altitude spy or reconnaissance planes, F-117 stealth 
fighter and now the top-secret Aurora, another spy plane.

The military has refused to acknowledge the existence of the 
heavily-guarded Area 51, 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas near a 
spot called Groom Lake.

UFO buffs claim a purported alien found in the crash of a space 
vehicle near Roswell, N.M., July 8, 1947, was taken to Area 51. 
The government has denied the wreckage found in the New Mexico 
desert was that of a spacecraft.

The lore figured in the 1996 blockbuster movie "Independence 
Day," which showed a top-secret underground lab at Area 51 
conducting alien autopsies and studying a flying saucer.

The Nevada Department of Transportation, mindful of the growing 
interest in this remote area, recently named the 92-mile stretch 
of state route 375 the "Extraterrestrial Highway," and is 
planning to post special road signs.

Souvenir shops around Las Vegas peddle T-shirts, keychains and 
other trinkets featuring space aliens with bulbous heads.

Several former workers at Area 51 are suing the government, 
claiming they were harmed by burning of toxic materials at the 
base, but say their case is stymied by an executive order from 
President Clinton blocking release of information about 
activities there. They went to the U.S. Supreme Court last 
month, appealing a court order protecting the information.

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